


Down The Rabbit Hole

by Mimic_Teruyo



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 05:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15333147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimic_Teruyo/pseuds/Mimic_Teruyo
Summary: Two weeks after her resurrection, Futo is slowly coming to grips with her new surroundings and hating every second of it. A chance encounter has her come face to face with a different viewpoint, whether she likes it or not.





	Down The Rabbit Hole

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in 2/7/2018. Beta read by Gravity Saix of fanfiction.net

The sky was different.

That was the final straw, the one thing that Futo could never accept, and which in turn made all other changes to the world equally intolerable. The sky at the very least, just like the sun and stars, should have been immutable, but when Futo gazed up at the midday azure peeking from behind the parting rain clouds, a shudder coursed through her entire body.

Granted, it didn't look different from before. But Futo knew the truth.

The houses were built differently. The clothes were cut in new ways and often bright in hue even when worn by the poor. Youkai of all kinds mingled among humans. Battles were done with spell cards and no bloodshed, and fairies frolicked in broad daylight.

She witnessed a pair of them just then, racing each other, giggling all the way, taking no heed of her presence. She turned her head and kept stomping down the path towards the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She much preferred the wilderness, which still bore a distinct resemblance to the forests of her youth, right down to being infested by youkai.

They said the world beyond this land called Gensokyo was even more altered. Futo chose to think about it as little as she could.

Her memories were as vivid as ever, pristinely preserved by fourteen centuries of slumber. She could hear the wind rushing, feel silk against her skin, remember the distant sounds of combat and horses whinnying, taste the bitter blood in her mouth. Memories of beloved faces, and the elation of taking her first step on the path to immortality. Memories of a home long since lost, so clear she could almost touch them.

It was almost enough to drive one insane, really.

She folded her arms into her sleeves and moved faster. All the other residents of Senkai seemed perfectly at home in this new, bizarre time. The Crown Prince...naturally the Crown Prince was so great she could adapt to any setting with ease. Even Tojiko, who Futo had assumed would agree this age was blatantly inferior to their own, had the day before mildly remarked that bound books were an improvement over scrolls. And Seiga...well, Futo couldn't fathom what Seiga really thought at the best of times, but the hermit seemed as cheerful as ever.

And so, in the end, Futo was left alone with her contempt for modernity.

It shouldn't have mattered. She was there to serve the Crown Prince, for all eternity if at all possible. She would follow her anywhere, so why should it matter if the world they found themselves in was not to her liking?

She slowed down, her eyes sweeping across the cluster of bamboo slacks denoting the edge of the bamboo forest. Reimu Hakurei had warned them not to enter it during their earlier visit to the shrine. Supposedly, it was enchanted, and anyone who entered it without knowing the way would be irrecoverably if not rescued by a local. Futo didn't really understand it: in this new world, where everyone could fly, wouldn't someone lost just take to the skies? Still, the Crown Prince had agreed that keep away they would, and the Crown Prince's word was law.

She was just about to move on, intent on following her earlier plan to skirt the edge of the woods before returning, when she heard a voice so muffled and weak she only caught a couple of trailing words.

"—hear me?"

Futo perked up her ears. When no further comment was made, she spoke loudly. "Who speaks? Where art thou?"

"—over here. Please—"

A human in trouble, or a youkai mimicking one to lure Futo into a trap? Either way, she would follow this lead. She feared no youkai, and alien though the modern humans were, they were still cousins to her, as well as the Crown Prince's future subjects.

She held a hand to her better ear and began drifting towards the source of the voice, striding across the damp grass away from the forest. Nothing appeared amiss.

"I'm here!"

The voice was clear now, tinged with desperation, and yet Futo couldn't discern its exact source. She shortened her stride, her other hand drifting towards the emergency spell card she had tucked inside the folds of her clothes. As she still saw nothing, she kicked herself into the air and hovered to the level of lower tree branches.

Finally, she found what she sought. In the meadow between the bamboo forest and path, hidden by high blades of grass, was a deep hole in the ground. Something or someone was at the bottom of it, wiggling feebly, but Futo couldn't make sense of what she was seeing: her eyes were assaulted by an overwhelming, nigh supernatural presence of the colour pink.

She flew over and touched ground by the edge of the hole. The pit was as wide as it was deep, perhaps twenty shaku in all directions. A youkai with the ears of a rabbit's and kitted in a strange black jacket lay at the bottom, immersed in an unfamiliar pink substance. The youkai's long, vivid lavender hair was strewn everywhere around her like the halo of the sun.

The youkai's blood-red eyes gleamed ominously as she looked up at Futo, the misery etched on her face easing off. "Finally. I thought I'd go hoarse before anyone found me."

Futo wrinkled her nose. "What art thou hight? What brings thee here?"

The youkai pulled her neck back as she squinted at Futo. Perhaps the glare of the sun had gotten into her eyes. Youkai were creatures of the night, after all. "Um...I'm Reisen? It's kind of a long story."

Futo folded her arms back into her sleeves. "I'm at leisure."

"Oh." The initial smile the youkai had greeted her with lost several teeth. "If I tell you about it, will you please help me? I'm expected back at Eientei, but I don't know how quickly the others will find me."

"I shall consider it," said Futo, wondering what Eientei was. Some foul nest of youkai, no doubt.

All of Reisen's smile was gone by now. Still, youkai and humans alike were prepared to grasp at straws when they had nothing else. "My master is a pharmacist, and she asked me to deliver several orders of medicine to the Human Village."

Humans accepting medicine from youkai? The world became more bizarre the more time Futo spent in it. "And thou art supposed to find the village at the bottom of this hole?"

"Of course not!" Reisen snapped, finally displaying some of the ferocity Futo expected from youkai. "I have this... co-worker, I suppose, who likes playing pranks on me. When I was walking to the village, she stood on this meadow and spoke to me, only so quietly I couldn't make out the words, so I walked closer." Reisen's ears drooped as she held her chin against her chest. Futo noted that she hadn't seen the youkai move any of her limbs the entire time; they were all at least partially immersed in the pink substance. "This hole was all covered in leaves and twigs, you see, and I had a heavy load on my back, so when I hit the edge, I tried to turn, but I slipped and fell, and since I landed on the bottles, they broke...the liquids got mixed together with the powders and pills...and..."

"And thus thou art stuck in a sticky paste with no escape," Futo added.

Reisen's ears drooped further. "Exactly." She looked up with pleading eyes. "Eientei is not far. Please, I need Master Eirin's help. There's a guide who lives near who will help you to find your way there."

Futo straightened her back. "Methinks youkai scum like thou wants no aid from me. Stay where thou art for all I care."

Reisen blinked rapidly. "What?"

"Our people are at war, are they not? I have seen the deeds of your brood with mine own eyes time and time again. Why should I lend a hand to a youkai when for all I know, thou wilt bite it off as soon as it's in thy reach?"

Reisen stared. "Where are you even from?"

"What difference makes it? Thy kind shall never change."

"Eientei holds no ill will towards the humans of Gensokyo. My master and the mistress of the house aren't youkai, anyway." Reisen softened her glance. "Please help me. I'm not an earth rabbit, and I don't care about earthling youkai customs. All I want is to get out of this mess and go back home."

Not from earth? What kind of a hell-creature was this rabbit, exactly? "A betrayal of my principles, and of the strictures the Crown Prince and I live by is what thou suggest" said Futo primly. "No reward can thou offer that would make me aid thee. Rot there, I care not."

Reisen gawked at her like she had just grown wings. "Stars alive, who are you?"

Futo withdrew her hands from her sleeves and made a sweeping bow. "Mononobe no Futo, an immortal shikaisen in the service of Toyosatomimi no Miko, the Crown Prince. Thou should do well to remember that auspicious name, as it belongs to the future sovereign of all these lands."

As Reisen continued to gape at her, she whirled around and flounced away in long, high strides.

"Wait!" Reisen pleaded, her tone more urgent. "I've been stuck here for hours already!"

A grin rose to Futo's face. It was petty of her, yes, but she had encountered endless frustrations during her two weeks as a shikaisen. This stupid youkai, who had honestly believed a kin to humans would aid her and who was unable to do anything to harm Futo in turn, was a prime opportunity to let go off some of her pent-up irritation. She could watch her squirm for a moment longer, and practice her taunts for future battles: she had rather liked Tojiko's "Have at it!" during their most recent struggle, and felt she ought to come up with something equally memorable.

She turned around and walked back to the hole. Or, rather, she took one step forward and snagged her foot on a tripwire cunningly camouflaged by the surrounding grass and which she had previously walked over without notice due to the vigour of her strut.

She stumbled, and before she had time to react, she found herself falling head-first into the hole.

In the split second she spent in the air, she mastered herself just enough to realise she had to fly. She twisted around, but the very moment she would have escaped the pull of Mother Earth, she slammed back first into the pit, into the pink gunk and on top of Reisen. Her hat fell off her head, and her ponytail dipped into the liquid, which she learned had a texture similar to mizuame.

"Oof!" Reisen grunted in pain right by her ear.

Futo paid her no attention. She was more concerned with her feet, her right arm, a part of her back, and her left sleeve sinking into the pink liquid. Growling, she attempted to snag her sleeve free, but it refused to budge. Liquid though it was, it was as if it had taken a firm grip of Futo and held her in place, leaving only her left arm and torso, held above the surface by Reisen's body, free.

After Futo had caught her breath, she glared venom at Reisen. "So, this was thy plan all along? Art thou simply bait to lure in the foes of thy kin?"

"No!" Reisen glared back without a hint of shame. "The situation is exactly as I said it was. It's your own fault for tripping."

"'Twas due to a trap above."

"Oh." Reisen fell momentarily silently. "Tewi must have set that up to further the prank. Oh, she's so going get such a thrashing when I get out."

Futo stared sullenly at the pink gunk. The amount seemed almost obscene. "How much liquid medicine wert thou carrying?"

"Only a little. It was still raining when I set out, and the powders reacted with the water already in here." Reisen glanced at the clouds above. "It's a good thing it's not raining now, or we'd drown."

Futo suppressed a shudder. "Verily."

"And lucky for you, the glass shards are all beneath me instead of you. Those can really cut into a human's skin."

Futo rolled her eyes. Feigned concern from a youkai? What next, a human-youkai marriage? She decided to ignore the youkai altogether and try to form an escape plan. She could still move some of her upper body, and most importantly, her left hand. With careful movements...

She jostled herself into a better position, eliciting several grunts of displeasure from Reisen, then angled her arm to reach inside the front of her karinigu.

"Behold!" she announced triumphantly, fishing out two of her spell cards, holding them up between her index and middle finger like one held a go stone. She searched for the third one she had stashed away, to no avail. With an internal shrug, she decided it hardly mattered. "I shall simply declare one of these, and this noxious substance shall be gone forever."

"That might work." Reisen tilted her head as far as the liquid allowed her to peer at the cards. "What kind of effects do they have"

Futo turned her fingers to read the inscription. "This one is _Heaven Sign 'Rainy Iwafune.'_ "

"Er...'Rainy' as in water? Water's part of the paste in the first place."

She cast Reisen an ugly look. "What is thy aim?"

"It might dilute the paste. Or, with our luck, it'll make more of it until we suffocate."

She had to admit the youkai had a point. With some effort, she placed her hand back inside her clothes and discarded the card there. "Then, this shall be our salvation. _Blaze Sign 'Blazing Winds of Haibutsu.'_ "

For a while, Reisen just stared at her. Something about her eyes beyond their unnatural colour bothered Futo, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "...You're going to set fire to the paste while we're immersed in it?"

"Fire is the great cleanser," Futo argued.

"If you want to set yourself on fire on your own time, be my guest, but I like my hair and skin the way they are."

After some hesitation and lingering regret, Futo stashed the second spell card. As a shikaisen, her body was immortal, but hardly impervious to pain. Though the notion of all-consuming fire warmed her heart, severe enough burns might still make her wish she could die instead.

"I have naught else. Art thou all criticism, or dost thou have some thoughts of thine own?"

Reisen sighed. "Well, my plan was to seek help from passers-by..."

"Ah." On instinct, Futo leaned her head back, remembering too late that meant landing her head in the gunk. At least she was somewhat comfortable now: the liquid was cold and clammy, but not slimy, and Reisen's body made for a decent cushion. "'tis not an oft traversed road, is it?"

"Someone's bound to show up. And if not, I'm sure Tewi will return once night falls, She sometimes takes things too far, but not _that_ far. Until then..." Reisen smiled weakly. "Suppose we could talk to pass the time. It might attract someone's attention, too."

"Fraternising with youkai mislikes me."

"Oh. Right." The youkai sighed again. "You're the most bizarre human I've ever met."

"Shikaisen," Futo corrected. "And naught is bizarre about opposing youkai."

"Fine, Shikaisen." Reisen's eyes fell shut. "Let's just wait, then. Even with the worst luck, it shouldn't take longer than a couple of hours."

 

* * *

 

High above, the full moon loomed over them wreathed in mist-like clouds.

Futo's teeth clattered. For a long while, she had been fine: bored, of course, but not to an unmanageable degree. Tojiko had spoken of existing alone in the mausoleum for at least ten hundred years, and Futo wasn't going to go mad from a mere ten hours of forced indolence.  
She had happily whiled away the time fantasising about fires and the impending glorious reign of the Crown Prince.

It was after the sun, which had resembled a bright egg yolk and made Futo's stomach growl in protest, had descended behind the bamboo, when things had become tricky. The temperature had sharply dropped; the cold had reached Futo's bones and she couldn't sleep from the constant shudders it induced. The paste didn't help matters: it was almost like soaking her limbs in impossibly viscous ice. She had slept outdoors a few times in the past, but there had always been a fire or at least some excess clothes in which to wrap herself. All she had right then was the heat from Reisen's body beneath her, which only served to remind her she was within biting distance from a youkai.

What a time to live in.

Reisen had been very quiet since their first and only discussion halted, only briefly shifting to remind Futo she was still awake, staring at the sky with a contemplative look in her eyes. No doubt she was plotting something nasty, but for the time being, Futo had the advantage; her free hand, tucked inside her karinigu, held one of her spell cards. Should Reisen attempt to eat her, she wouldn't hesitate to burn them both where they lay.

Just as she thought this, for no reason she could fathom, Reisen began to laugh. It was low, bitter chuckle, and kept going for a long while. It reminded Futo of Tojiko: she hardly ever laughed, alive or dead, and her laugh shared the unpractised feeling of the youkai's chortling.

"Of course it has to be a night of a full moon." Reisen murmured after the laughter finally subsided, just within Futo's range of hearing.

Futo turned her head towards Reisen. The was a strange gleam in the youkai's eyes, one that almost looked like longing. It couldn't be, of course, but even so, Futo's resolve to stay silent was waning. She might as well try to pass the time to keep her mind from the cold seeping into her very soul. "What of the moon? Does pounding mochi mislike thee?"

Reisen chuckled. "I pound medicine, really. No, it's not that." She nudged her shoulder futilely upwards, almost like she wished to reach for the moon. "It's my home, you see. My real home."

Futo stared. "Youkai live on the moon?"

"Us moon rabbits do. It's not just youkai: Master Eirin and Princess Kaguya lived there before they were exiled. They came here long before I did."

Perhaps the cold had reached her heart and driven her insane, but Futo find herself intrigued by the youkai's words. "Who are thy masters, then? Wherefore were they exiled?" After a moment's consideration, she added: "and why didst thou arrive hither?"

Reisen said nothing for a while. "If I'm going to spill my guts out to some weird human I just met, you're going to do the same for me. Turnabout's fair play. When did you arrive in Gensokyo?"

Why not speak? It was hardly a secret. "'Tis been fifteen sunsets since my glorious resurrection." Futo allowed herself to feel proud. "For fourteen hundred years, The Crown Prince has awaited for a time to return to lead her people. She has come to bring salvation to humans."

"The Crown Prince of what, exactly?"

Futo bristled. "Surely thou doth not dare claim Prince Shoutoku's reign is forgotten? Even a creature of the moon—"

"Prince Shoutoku!" Reisen interrupted her. She stared at Futo with her mouth open. "Well, see, this is what happens when I stay at Eientei for too long without visiting the Human Village. Surely this must be the talk of the town."

"I should think so." Futo puffed out her chest as well she could with half her back in the gunk. "The humans of Gensokyo have wanted proper leadership and protection for far too long. The Crown Prince shall hear their desires and set things right to the benefit of all their kind."

Reisen had the gall to laugh. "I almost hesitate to ask about her stance on youkai."

"Thy kind are an abomination on Earth," Futo immediately replied. " One day you shall all be slaughtered, and I shall help lead the people to enact humanity his revenge."

"You sure talk a big game." Reisen bared her teeth. Curiously, she had no fangs; in fact, her teeth looked identical to a human's. "I'd like to see you try your awesome youkai-slaying prowess against me while trapped here. One quick bite to the back of your neck, and Gensokyo would be a lot more peaceful."

Futo stiffened. "A further word, fiend, and I shall smite thee till nothing but cinders remain!"

The fiend dared laugh once more. "I have seen a person burn to death more times than I can count. What are you going to do, rub sticks together next to me until my socks catch on fire? You can't do what Fujiwara no Mokou can."

"Fujiwara no Mokou?" Futo's ears perked up. "Thou knowst a member of the illustrious Fujiwara clan?" Her face fell. "Another human turned youkai, is she?"

"She's still human, as far as I can tell." Reisen hesitated. "Not a...normal human, but still."

"Explain."

"Have you ever heard of the Hourai Elixir?"

Futo continued staring. The term was new to her, but she wasn't ready to confess such. Thus, she struggled with her pride as to whether she could ask for clarification or not.

Mercifully, Reisen kept speaking before she lowered herself to asking about it. "It's another way to achieve immortality. Only, it renders you completely invulnerable; it's doesn't matter if you're hacked to pieces or ground to powder, you will always return, never ageing, until the end of time. Gone now, and with the last batch destroyed," she added, presumably seeing the glint in Futo's eye. "Mokou was the last to consume the Elixir, and the only human on earth to do so as far as I know," Futo frowned at this statement, but Reisen didn't stop to explain. "So now she's like the Princess and Master Eirin. Maybe you two should meet. She's old enough that she might know how to speak like you."

"Perhaps." The prospect of meeting another human, a real human, from a time close to her own, was thrilling indeed, as was the opportunity to annoy Tojiko by making friends with a Fujiwara and thus an enemy of the Soga clan. Not that Tojiko had ever been very close to her family, but it was the thought that counted.

Reisen stared at the moon in silence for a moment. "Since you asked, the elixir is why Master Eirin and Princess Kaguya are here now. As for me..." She shook her head. "It's your turn, first. You were resurrected?"

Futo beamed. Finally, something she liked discussing. "'Tis so. The Crown Prince chose to be reborn, and myself and my friend Tojiko wished to follow her. We were aided by a wise hermit in learning the means to remain on Earth as shikaisen."

"So, Gensokyo received three new shikaisen all in one go, all of them interested in politics?" Reisen smiled. "Reimu must be thrilled."

"Nay, only two. Tojiko is now a vengeful ghost."

"What happened?"

Futo hesitated. Although Tojiko herself appeared to have both guessed what had happened and not hold an obvious grudge , she wasn't sure she wanted to admit the truth to a perfect stranger, let alone a youkai. "'Tis thy turn to speak."

Reisen drew in a deep breath. Futo could feel her chest rise and fall beneath her back. When the youkai finally spoke, it was in short, clipped utterances, like she was pushing the words out. "There was an invasion. From the earth. Humans outside Gensokyo had learned how to fly and approached the Capital." She turned her head away. "I fled here. When I learned my master and the princess were still living here, I sought asylum from them. Because I didn't want to go back and face my friends after abandoning them."

Futo said nothing for a long while, mostly because she had no idea what to say. There was only one thing she understood with certainty: the strange emotion glimmering in Reisen's eyes as she looked up at the full moon earlier had been homesickness, much like what Futo felt for her long lost home.

Reisen appeared to have retreated into her thoughts and said nothing further, her eyes glazing over. Futo returned to shivering.

 

* * *

 

Eventually, after several clouds had drifted over the moon and the earliest birds of the morning began to sing in the still looming darkness, Futo broke the silence. "Tojiko is a ghost because I tricked her. To become a shikaisen, thou must possess an object which acts as a substitute for your body. I swapped the object Tojiko chose for something that would soon decay, and thus she died in earnest."

Reisen opened her eyes and frowned. "Why?"

"A grudge, 'tis all. We were foes before we came to an agreement in matters of religion and serving the Crown Prince." Futo shivered, and not from the cold. "In troth, I did not wish her ill in particular, not at that point.'Twas as though I had been possessed by a vengeful spirit. She had renounced her clan in secret just as I had left behind mine, and yet..."

"Huh." After a long pause, Reisen smiled. "Guess we have some things in common, then."

"I'm no youkai."

"I never said you were."

"I have nothing in common with your kind," Futo said vehemently.

Reisen gave her a surprised look. "Did you just call me 'you'?"

Futo looked away. It had been a slip of the tongue. It meant nothing. Certainly she could never have even a modicum of understanding for a youkai. "Perhaps we best remain silent again."

"If that's what you want."

The silence lasted for perhaps half an hour, during which Futo squeezed her eyes shut in a desperate attempt to find some sleep, to no avail. She was almost relieved when Reisen spoke up again.

"You know...it's going to get easier with time. Living in Gensokyo, that is." Reisen turned her head to meet Futo's eyes. The red of her pupils, in the pale light before dawn, was less like the colour of blood and more like the shade of poppies. "It was difficult for me to adjust at first, with all my new responsibilities and a world of impurities...but now, it's fine. I won't claim I know you, but I hope you settle in as well."

Futo gave her a lop-sided grin. "A ploy to earn my trust so that thou may ambush and kill me later when I least expect it."

"Think of it as you will." Reisen closed her eyes. "Welcome to Gensokyo."

As the first rays of dawn emerged in the horizon, Futo nudged Reisen with her free hand. "Couldst thou speak of what was life on the moon like?"

Reisen smiled. The sun rose quickly as she told the increasingly astonishing tales of the venerable kingdom of the Moon.

 

* * *

 

"—The Crown Prince summoned us, but she was such a persistent dodger! No matter how many arrows we conjured, she kept weaving through them."

Reisen laughed. "That's what happened when my master and the Princess wished to hide the Earth from the moon, too. I tried everything I could to confuse them, but—"

She paused, her rumpled ears perking up. "I think I heard footsteps"

Futo cupped her free hand around her ear, and heard the distinct rhythm of a pair of feet not far away. "Verily, I believe thee right."

"It's probably Mokou on her morning walk." Reisen took a deep breath, then bellowed so loudly Futo's ears rang. "Hey! Over here! Help us!"

The footsteps halted, then approached. Futo's heart beat violently. Granted, she didn't know if whoever was out there would be willing to aid them, but right then, she would have been glad to see even the Buddhists.

A doll with a large ribbon in its hair peered over the edge of the trap, quickly joined by a young woman who could have passed for a doll herself, with skin like porcelain and a pastel dress. Her hair gleamed in the morning sun like threads of gold.

The woman was a complete stranger to Futo, but that clearly wasn't the case with Reisen. "Alice Margatroid!" she gasped. "You're a sight to sore eyes."

"What's going on here?" The woman called Alice asked, frowning.

Reisen sighed. "It's a long story. I don't mind sharing it, but not until a change of clothes and a cup of tea." She twitched as if trying to reach upwards, a futile effort with both her hands stuck. "Please, we need help. If you can find Fujiwara no Mokou, she can relay a message to Eientei. We need something to extract yourselves from this gunk. We've been here whole night."

Futo had little to add to this, so she nodded eagerly and stared up at Alice like the newcomer was a spirit of salvation.

It only took a few moments of pleading eyes from the pair of them before Alice averted her gaze and sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

"Blessings be with thee," Futo exclaimed.

"Shh, I'm thinking." Alice stroked her chin, like a general concocting a battle plan. Then, she snapped her fingers, and eleven more dolls appeared around the rim. "I'll dispatch some dolls to the forest and personally try to find Mokou, and whoever gets back here first shall help you. I don't have the whole day to dawdle in the wilderness."

"That's fine. Thanks," said Reisen.

With a sudden jerk, Alice moved both her hands, and the dolls dispersed. Futo wondered whether this strange youkai was controlling them, or if the puppets had a will of their own. "I'll be on my way, then. Next time, consider not crawling into strange holes in the ground."

With that, she left.

Futo sighed, but she didn't have the energy to be offended either by the riposte or the fact she was being aided by a youkai. Now that she no longer had Reisen's stories to distract her, every joint in her body felt like it was made of metal. When she brought her free arm in front of her eyes and shrugged her sleeve down, the skin underneath was ghastly pale and covered in goosebumps.

Still, she felt at peace. She turned her head and almost beamed at Reisen before remembering what she was.

"About time for us to say farewell, huh?" said Reisen, giving her a thoughtful look.

"'Tis indeed."

A brief silence followed, once again broken by Reisen. "For what it's worth...I'm glad we talked. This wasn't exactly the most fun place for it, but..."

"'Twas the first time I've spoken to a youkai. 'Twas...not entirely intolerable." Futo met Reisen's bizarre, stunned eyes calmly.  
"You have my thanks."

She wasn't going to allow this encounter change her stance on youkai: she had dedicated her life to serving the Crown Prince and thus humanity, and nothing could change her mind. And yet, she felt no enmity towards this moon rabbit. If anything, there was indeed a kind of kinship, almost like Reisen had suggested before.

And thus, despite everything, she found herself responding to Reisen's smile as they waited for whoever would be their saviour, for once feeling perfectly at ease.


End file.
